Hello,
Merry Christmas! As is my
custom, I write a story for my Christmas Eve sermon. So, for all of you who weren’t at the 7:00 service at First
Lutheran of Greensburg (and even for those of you who were)….here’s this year’s
story.
‘Do not be
afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to
you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the
Lord.
Four 12 years Billy
Johnson had lived in the same town, the same house, went to the same church,
had the same friends, but when he turned 13 he moved. His mother got a new job, a good job, so after a family
conference around dinner one night, the family decided that although it was
going to be hard to leave, the right thing to do was to move to the town where
his mom’s job was going to be.
So, in the middle of
the summer they packed up everything that they had, went to a whole bunch of
farewell parties and set off onto a new adventure. When they drove out of town, it really was farewell, because
his mom’s new job was clear across the country. It was a bit scary for all of them, so when their old town
was out of sight they passed a Bible around the car and everyone read a verse
from Psalm 23….”The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want……he leadeth me by
still waters, he restoreth my soul…..surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
It took several days
to drive to their new town, and even though they were still in the United
States when they hopped out of the car to get something to eat at the
MacDonalds, it felt like they were in a foreign land. Everything was so much older. The streets were so much tighter. The houses were so much closer together. The people talked funny, at least funny
to them. There were people wearing
clothes the likes of which they had never seen before, and some of their
favorite TV shows came on so much later than they did in their previous town
that he knew that they would never be able to watch them.
The transition to the
new school was tough. It wasn’t
that the kids and teachers were mean to him, it was just that it felt like the
kids and the teachers didn’t even notice him. When he walked into the classrooms, the kids would wave a
quick “hi” to him, but then quickly turn and talk to their friends. Plans were made by them to hang out,
but those plans never included him.
Some of the subjects in school were new to him, and he felt like a
cycler going up a hill trying to keep up with the rest of the pack. Other subjects were old hat to him, and
sitting in class was like taking a sleeping pill. It wasn’t that things were bad with the move to this new
town, it was just that it was like trying to jump into a train that was
speeding by, and as the days passed by he just felt lost … a fish out of water,
a ship without a sail.
The one place where
he felt a little different was in church.
They located a Lutheran church not too far from his new home, and every
Sunday he would go to church and feel a little less lost. The worship liturgy was the same as the
church he grew up in, they just sang it a lot faster here. Communion was still the body and blood
of Jesus given in bread and wine, but instead of a continuous flow of people
past the bread and wine, you had to kneel around the altar and wait for
everyone to get done. Some of the
hymns he recognized and could sing, others he had never heard before. And even though the kids were a little
warmer to him, they still seemed to stick tight with their old friends, kind of
leaving him out. It wasn’t the
perfect place to begin to feel at home in this new town, but unlike everything
else, it was at least a beginning.
So, when Christmas
came, it came to Billy with an extra measure of excitement, a chance for him to
really feel at home. He could
hardly wait to hear the familiar story of Jesus’ birth, just like he had heard
it over and over again before he moved.
He could hardly wait to sing “Away in the Manger”, “Silent Night”, and
“Joy to the World” and know that they were singing them back at his other home
on that night, too. He couldn’t
wait to watch the candle light get passed through the congregation, just like
it did in his old church. After
feeling so lost for the last several months, Billy could hardly wait to get on
the solid and familiar ground of Christmas eve worship.
Christmas Eve morning
not only ushered in Christmas, but it also ushered in a Christmas snow storm,
the like of which had never been known in his new town. Of course where he used to live, it was
just one of those winter storms that you lived through, so he had no idea of
the surprise that was coming before him. Playing video games all day as the
snow kept on falling, he had a harder and harder time concentrating on the
video game knowing that the time to go to church, to feel at home, was coming
near.
“We’re not going to
church tonight,” said Billy’s mother.
“The weather is too bad, and the roads have not been plowed. We’ll never get there, and if we do,
we’ll never get home.” When he
heard it, his heart sank…..(to be continued next week)
Have a great
week.
God’s grace and
peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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